Dear Virtual Me: Stop Wielding Stupid Things

[geldonyetich]

I just limped back to base with 5 torso points left because my stupid, stupid player character, master of karate, equipped an unloaded MAC-10 and tried to fight a zombie hulk with it, losing his capacity to block in the process. Soon afterward, he did the same thing with an empty plastic bottle.

Previously, I lost a character because they would not automatically wield a broadsword upon picking it up because it is classified as a tool, so I ended up losing a few turns to punching my opponent.

I know this is partly my fault for not looking at my status line before executing the turn, but I think just as much at fault is the lack of proper consistency in behavior when characters auto-wield items: sometimes they’ll auto-wield the last thing they pick up, other times they don’t. It needs to be consistent, either auto-wield the last thing you pick up all the time, or don’t auto-wield at all!

I’d settle for the latter. Is there a way to a disable auto-wielding?

Another issue is, as a karate user, my character keeps falling back to his fists when I put away items. Fortunately, blocking does seem to occur even with fists out, and it does not cost a turn to switch from fists to karate, but I can still lose a turn or two before I notice I’m fighting like an self-trained pugilist. Why would I ever want to use my fists when I know a martial art and already had one selected?

[Iosyn]

Equip a paper wrapper. See if he can still block hulk smash with his awesome chi powers. >.>

[geldonyetich]

Well, I certainly couldn’t use my chitin arm guards while holding a small piece of paper in my clenched fists, now could I? That would just be unforgivably bad form!

But, even with my awesome 6+ unarmed/melee karate powers, I don’t expect to take down a hulk with my bare hands. It’s mostly just a delaying tactic while the monster burns down from standing in a fire. Zombie hulks ain’t no Bruce Banner in the brain department, I’ll tell you that.

[Iosyn]

bear traps, man. 3-4 bear traps and a decent pistol and you’re set. hell, you can use spears instead of the pistol as long as you pick up the used traps and reset them-- and they don’t even take up much inventory space either.

Found an M1911 (which now has a silencer and extra mag) and it punches holes in them like crazy. Tried to use a remington 870 just for this purpose, but it seems birdshot just bounces off. Best find some slugs I guess.

[geldonyetich]

It’s not really taking on the hulks that I’m complaining about though - I’ve got the hulks handled. I’m just pointing out the auto-wielding system causes me to do stupid things unless I babysit it, which is sort of something I’d like to see tweaked in future revisions.

[ArgusTheCat]

Equip a paper wrapper. See if he can still block hulk smash with his awesome chi powers. >.>

I want a trait that gives me the paper control power from Read or Die. I would totally fight zombies with candy wrappers.

[KA101]

I think the idea behind auto-wielding is to conserve inventory volume, as well as ensure that one use weapons if one hasn’t got any. That said, I’d agree that an unarmed style ought to be considered a weapon for auto-equip purposes.

Re declining to use one’s style: conceivably one might want to quit leg-blocking with taekwondo or something like that if one’s legwear was getting ripped up. Apart from that, ans as a taekwondo user, I’d rather “fists” required specific style selection and one’s style was the default unarmed.

One thing I’ve noticed in my old version is that picking up a glass bottle weaponizes it (fine) , autoequips over an unarmed style (meh) and then can’t find it when I’m looking for a place to put that 250ml of Mutagen I just cooked up. Guessing equip slots don’t count for purposes of whether I’ve got the item?

[Iosyn]

indeed, autoweilding is a bit weird-- start the game, craft a nailboard-- and drop it because it’s too large instead of dropping the rock.

craft a crowbar, it sits in your inventory. but yeah it usually equips the largest volume thing you pick up.

As for default fists, I’d prefer it to be default brawling to reflect it’s rather survival street-fighting instead of some style. We need boxing as a style too. Also you should get a bonus to fighting in bars with glass bottles and stools when in the default brawling mode.

[Lost]

If only there were folding chairs in Cataclysm…

Of course, my character’s throwing skill is at 10 now, nearly 11. I could brain someone with a folding chair from across the stadium.

[KA101]

Heh. I’ve been wanting “Fists” changed to “Wrestling” or somesuch to reflect the 101 Wrestling Moves book.

I can dig out GURPS Martial Arts* if anyone wants the reference–Boxing would give a fairly small dodge bonus against a single target whilst having Feint, Jab, Brutal, and possibly Counter/Grab. Wrestling, well, that’s probably a pipe dream.

*Got lots more where that GURPS came from. Letting me alone with the mutations code is probably a bad idea; Bio-Tech would have a field day.

[Sep]

for melee and ranged folks its fine as is, I’m actually annoyed every time i have to put away my bow when carrying big car parts like frames. with enough backpacks i can carry 2 on the back and a 3rd in the hands. same for windows. but at least the game asks when it wants to replace what i have. it doesn’t ask if it wants to replace the sweet-nothing you prefer to do your fighting with. bummer.

so for hands-free guys like you, a character specific option is probably in order. one that says ‘prefer hands-free’.

makes me actually want to try the martial arts stuff one day.

[Lost]

I’m leveling up unarmed combat here and there, which in my case means it’s actually level 7. I can afford it at this point when my dodge skill is at 10 now and I have almost nothing to fear from the regular zombie hordes.

[AseaHeru]

I think if it is too large to shove in your pockets you equip it.

[Lost]

That’s not always the case, though. I think it’s when you’re around 80% full volume, the next item you pick up you’ll automatically equip.

[Sep]

yep, that’s what it feels like and why ‘prefer hands-free’ might be a good option. if you had that on, it would ask before putting an item into your hands, just like its asking now if you want to drop x to carry y.

but these yes/no prompts are a real pain - compared to the ease promised by the left/right/up/down template and game selection mechanics you first see when 0.2 starts. i think all the y/n prompts should… remember the last choice i made in them, use left/esc for no, use enter/right to accept, and use up/down to choose between yes/no/silent … where silent makes the dialog pick the last option for the next safemode-turns-on-again-turns. or something. all dialogues suck, especially multiple dialogues in a row.

so, anyway, dodge 10. wow. how high can these numbers go anyway? the highest skills i have are 11…14ish, like driving, archery and throwing. i turned em off.

[Lost]

I don’t know if there’s a hard cap on the skills. If there is, it’s probably 99. Problem is skill rust as it currently works generally kills any experience gain past level 7 for any skill until you get the Memory Banks bionic, or you turn off skill rust altogether. Not that there’s a point to level up most non-combat skills past level 8, except for Mechanics. As far as I’m aware, you need a mechanics skill of 18 to strap a third engine onto a vehicle, and that’s the most advanced thing you can do. Right now, my highest level skills are cooking and mechanics at level 14. Melee is second at 13.

[KA101]

In the 02 Feb version, you need Cooking 9 & at least one point of First Aid to make Purifier. That, engine work, & diminishing-returns improvement in skill success would be the only reasons I’d level past 8-9.

[Sep]

thanks guys